


We'll Meet Again

by trixm



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, GTA AU, M/M, Polyamory, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-04
Updated: 2016-03-09
Packaged: 2018-05-24 15:36:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6158345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trixm/pseuds/trixm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a heist gone wrong, the Fake AH Crew is decimated.  Before their final stand, Geoff promises his boys they'll find each other again in the next life.  But reincarnation isn't that easy and Geoff finds himself struggling to put the pieces of his gang back together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. We'll Meet Again

**Author's Note:**

> So i somehow found [this](http://adoptanrtfic.tumblr.com/post/103310226089/prompt-ot6-au-where-they-all-get-reincarnated-but) for like two years ago?? and fell in love with it?? I tried to go through tags to see if this has even been done before but I don't believe it has. I have no idea how to go about contacting whomever originally wrote that prompt but I'm just so in love and I hope it finds it's way back to them so I can thank them for their lovely inspiration uwu!
> 
> Also, since this is a reincarnation fic, there will be mentions of characters dying even if their deaths aren't permanent. There is no graphic depiction of anything, but just a heads up if you don't like that sort of thing!

“Geoff!  Geoff you’ve got to do something!”  Gavin pleads. His voice is nearly drowned out by the din of gunfire and the sound of Ray’s ill-timed grenade going off.

Geoff just gives Gavin a helpless glance from where he is bunkered down behind their overturned armored van.  His face scrunches with worry as he tries to discern if the body pillowed in Gavin’s lap is still breathing.  Geoff doesn’t have time to think about the possibility of whether or not Ryan is going to pull through as Jack grabs his shoulder and forces him to retreat away from the car.

Geoff’s sight is a blur of bloodied concrete and Jack’s torn Hawaiian shirt before he is steadied by strong, familiar hands.  He and Jack have fallen back to where Ray is holed up in a valiant effort to gun down the fleet of city cops and SWAT teams that have surrounded them.  Geoff turns back towards Gavin, now even farther away who is now seemingly protecting Ryan’s fallen form with his own body as the van Geoff was just using for cover explodes.

Jack curses in Geoff’s ear as Ray whines, the younger man dropping back behind the concrete blockade for a momentary relief from the heat.  Gavin’s plea rings in Geoff’s ears as he watches his two boyfriends painted in reds and yellows from the light of the raging fire just a few feet from them.  The flames are growing quickly and although Jack is right next to Geoff, his voice urging them backwards seems warbled as if Geoff is underwater rather than in the middle of a firefight.

Geoff can pinpoint the exact moment Gavin realizes the position he and Ryan are in as embers fly towards his own vehicle.  Gavin shifts away from the door he’d been using to prop himself and Ryan up as he tries to get a grip under Ryan’s arms to drag him away from the car.  Jack seems to be trying to pull Geoff back again too, knowing that the cover of the flames is their best chance at regrouping.

But Gavin falters under Ryan’s weight and he can barely get Ryan a few inches before he is forced to try and readjust his hold.  Geoff breaks away from Jack's grip and braves the fire that is licking at his heels as he begins to crouch run the few meters between his safety and Gavin.  The police notice his movement almost immediately and Geoff is forced to zigzag the distance, costing him some serious burns on his calves.  When he gets to Gavin, Geoff almost sighs in relief when he sees Ryan’s chest rising and falling.  That relief is gone almost as quickly as it comes when he sees just how many bullet holes have torn through Ryan’s signature leather jacket.

Despite his renewed worry, Geoff gives Gavin a small smile before motioning that they should each take one of Ryan’s arms over their own shoulders.  Gavin is quick to catch on but even with two of them Ryan’s weight is hard to sustain.  For the first time ever, Geoff curses the fact that Ryan insists on maintaining his impressive size for the sake of the Vagabond’s reputation.

Jack and Ray seem to have caught on to what Geoff needs from them as they provide covering fire for the trio as Geoff leads Gavin further away from the flames.  Geoff’s legs are burning from where the fire had eaten away at his pants and inflamed his skin but he pushes away the pain in favor of focusing on getting Gavin and Ryan to safety. 

They’re only a few steps away from Jack and Ray's hiding spot when Geoff hears Gavin squawk.  Geoff nearly buckles as all of Ryan’s weight is forced onto his shoulder as Gavin goes down. 

“Gavin!” Geoff yells in panic.  All Geoff can see is a mess of blonde hair on the ground and Gavin curled in on himself.  Geoff shifts Ryan further onto his back to steady his hold as he tries to side step over to his hurt boyfriend.  Jack is there before Geoff is able to check on Gavin and he pulls Gavin the last of the way behind their barricade. Geoff is stuck out in the open, half crouched with Ryan weighing down on him.

Jack is back in a matter of moments to help Geoff the rest of the way, leaning Ryan up against the wall next to a scowling Gavin.  Once Ryan is settled, Jack pushes Geoff away and goes about checking Ryan’s vitals despite none of them having any way to treat his various wounds.  Geoff watches for a moment before turning towards Gavin, who is clutching his right leg.  Gavin notices Geoff watching him and offers a pout.

“Bloody wankers shot me in the shin!” Gavin wails dramatically.

“Tie it off,” Jack barks, spurring Geoff into motion.  Somehow his bow tie has survived the entire mess that is their failed heist and Geoff quickly unknots it and uses the silk band to tourniquet Gavin’s leg.  Geoff doesn’t realize his hands are shaking as he tries to think of some way to get them all out of this until Gavin reaches down and squeezes one.

“Thanks boss,” Gavin says with a smile that doesn’t fit with all the ash and blood they are covered in.  Geoff darts forward with rising desperation, grabbing Gavin’s face tenderly before kissing him with abandon.

“Has anyone heard from Michael?” Ray asks, ducking down to regard the other four crew members in between shots.  Geoff pulls away from Gavin, guiltily looking at the ground before shaking his head.

“Last I heard from him he was back by the overpass, waiting for us to pick him up so he could detonate and block off the cops.  And, well…” Geoff trails off as he gestures around them.  Ray purses his lips, dropping his gaze and Gavin’s hand finds Geoff’s again.

They had never made it to pick up Michael.  The cops must have been tipped off over their route for today’s heist and a second fleet were waiting for them the second they turned off the overpass.  They had tried to loop around but Los Santos PD must have called in favors from every agency in the area as no matter where Jack turned more and more cops seemed to spawn. 

Geoff made the call and that they had to left Michael behind for now.  Geoff had so much faith in their explosives specialist and he had hoped that with all the heat on them Michael would have a fighting chance to make it back to one of their safe houses.  But then they had heard an explosion that could have only be Michael detonating the C4 on the overpass before his comm went dead.

“I thought maybe Ryan…” Ray mumbles, glancing over at the largest member of their team before letting out a growl and heaving his sniper rifle back over their barricade.  Geoff glances at Gavin, who just shakes his head.  Gavin and Ryan had tried to flank the police on a bike and see if they could pick up Michael but they had come back all too soon with Ryan practically collapsing off the motorcycle and behind the car Geoff had just rescued the pair from.

“This is the best I can do for him right now,” Jack announces, backing up from Ryan and frowning down at Gavin.  “Can you walk?”  Gavin tries to push himself up before grimacing and yelping in pain.  Jack’s frown deepens.  “I’ll take that as a ‘no’.”

“I’m out,” Ray says, voice wavering from his typical apathy.  He eyes sweep over Ryan and Gavin before flicking between Jack and Geoff.  Watching Ray try to grasp for some absolution, Geoff is struck with just short a time his crew has been together.  They all know what it means to put their lives in jeopardy each day and Geoff trusts them to make decisions for themselves but when the reality that they might not make it sets it, Geoff can’t help but find it unfair that their time with each other is to be cut so short.

“What now, Geoffrey?” Gavin asks, voice small.  The weight of it all seems to have set in on the four conscious men in those few moments.  Gun shots ring out around them more sparsely than before but Geoff is no fool, he knows that the moment any one of his boys makes a move they’d be gunned down without hesitation.  LSPD aren’t playing this time- they're shooting to kill and plan to eliminate the Fake AH Crew once and for all.  And it seems like they are doing a damn good job of it, Geoff thinks with a scowl.

“Last time I was this boned I was freezing my ass off in Cambrai,” Geoff jokes, trying to diffuse the tension.  “What was it for you, Jack?  Potato famine?”

“Shut up,” Jack snaps with a playful shove to Geoff’s shoulder.  Ray offers a small smile and Gavin laughs at the pair’s antics.  Out of all of them, Geoff doesn’t talk about his past lives as much as the others.  The lads had reasoned out over time that it was because Geoff, like Ryan, could vividly remember the dozens of lives he had lived over time and it was more painful than the glimpses people usually were reincarnated with.  Gavin can remember bits and pieces of past lives and the one he had spent with Jack and Geoff before being born into the golden boy of Los Santos is definitely the clearest.  Michael says the same thing about his own reincarnation memories, claiming that finding his boi and the crew were what made his lives worth living.

The thought of Michael leaves a hollow ache in Geoff's chest.  Although no one can confirm it, Geoff knows that the other man is long gone at this point.  If not, Michael would have been here with the biggest gun he could find, wreaking havoc on the SWAT teams in a way only he can manage.

“You know, this is actually a bit better than Cambrai,” Geoff comments.  “Did you know that was the first time I ever shot a gun?”

“Dude, so that’s like the crusades, right?” Ray jokes.

“Fuck you, dude.  I’m not that old.  World War I,” Geoff proclaims proudly.  Ray just rolls his eyes, smile a bit more solid now.  “But seriously, I was lucky I got shot in the fucking head my first time out because starving to death was not a way I wanted to go.”

Geoff’s jokes quickly turn serious, leveling each of his boyfriends with a somber stare.  “We’ve all done this before, okay?  Gav and Jack, we’ve found each other last time.  And Michael too.  Now we just have you, Ray, and Ryan to find as well.”

“And you know what Micool says,” Gavin practically crows, “it’s easier to remember because it’s us!”

“You’re goddamn right it is,” Geoff says, pounding his fist into his hand.  “We’re not gonna let these bags of dicks win.  We’re going to go down fighting and take out as many of these fuckers as we can.  We’re going to be fucking legends of Los Santos so when we all find each other in the next life we can hear whispers of the late, great Fake AH crew who fucking ran this city.  And we’re gonna take it all back and live like kings.”

"We will meet again," Jack croons low and off key. Geoff rolls his eyes ribs him, mumbling about the wrong war, much to Gavin and Ray's confusion.

Geoff softens, looking at all his boys and the determination in their eyes.  He reaches to caress both Ray’s and Gavin’s cheeks one last time before leaning in and giving them each a chaste kiss.  As soon as he pulls away from Ray, Jack spins him around a plants a forceful kiss of his own on Geoff’s lips before doing the same to each of the lads.  Geoff finally faces Ryan with a sad smile, kissing the top of his head more sweetly than he ever would if the Vagabond was awake.  After all their kisses are exchanged, Geoff takes the extra SMG Jack offers him and helps Gavin get in position to shoot.

They’re waiting on Geoff’s signal and he takes one last moment to admire his boys, all of them looking fierce in the light of the fire burning between them and the cops despite their injuries.  Geoff gives one last smile before offering his parting words.

“I love all of you, so much.  We’ll find each other again in the next life.  I swear it.” And then before anyone else could offer a sappy goodbye, Geoff gives the nod and the final four of the Fake AH Crew make their stand against the waves of awaiting law enforcement.

When Geoff feels something rip through his shoulder, much too close to his chest, he can still hear gunfire all around him.  His last thought is a selfish one, thanking whatever deity there might be that he isn’t the one who has to stand the silence of being the last one standing.


	2. Geoff

Geoff never knew the lads’ theory on why he doesn’t talk about his previous reincarnations, but they were pretty spot on.  Geoff has what many consider to be a blessing in which he could recall his past with amazing detail, even more accurately than some could recall the happenings of their current life.

Geoff really would like to meet some of those people who call his memory a blessing and punch them right in the dick.  Yeah, Geoff can recount tales of old that the history books either left out or twisted with time, but he can also remember the sorrow of losing his first wife in childbirth because the baby was breech and the midwife was just another woman from their small rural town.  Geoff can tell you funny tales of what life was like before indoor plumbing was a thing, but he also has to live with seeing something that reminds him of an old friend and the sinking feeling that comes with the knowledge that that person would no longer get the reference.  And it hurts.  It hurts even worse when that old friend happens to be one of his boyfriends and Geoff makes a joke about something that happened in another life but sees their blank face and remembers that it wasn’t _this version_ of them.

Geoff has lived through so many lives in so many times that he could teach a history course based off of his own memories, but he never dwells these pasts that he will only ever be able to reach again in dreams.  Except now he has to because he’s searching for his crew- his five boyfriends all out of time and space with an ever growing population counting against them.

Geoff was lucky last time when it had just been four of them that only one had been reincarnated out of this country.  Even more lucky that Gavin had managed to be reincarnated as a British man rather than somewhere in Russia or China or something else foreign with anti-Western beliefs.  But now there’s six of them and Geoff is the only person he knows who has been reborn in the same locale time after time.  Nevertheless, Geoff knows that as soon as he is able to, he’ll start looking for each of his boys in their previous home states.

Reliving childhood used to be one of Geoff’s favorite parts of reincarnation.  Each set of his parents always held a special place in his heart.  Geoff had been lucky enough to never get stuck with ones who longed for their former children and tried to force him into roles of previous sons and daughters.  He’s met many people who have had these types of childhoods before.  Although Geoff is born with all the knowledge of his previous selves and can never again partake in the innocence of youth, he’s learned to play the part well in order to repay the kindness of his parents.

Growing up in this age with all its technology and digital amusements really seems to hinder that spirit of childhood, or so Geoff believes as he spends his early years cooped up in playrooms with iPads and Parental Controlled gaming systems.  Going outside is more like a punishment for his fellow children rather than a way of life and so Geoff bears through the isolation these technologies impose. 

When he really wants, Geoff can just let years past by him like minutes, because to someone his age that is all they are in the scheme of his existence.  Five quickly fades into eight and Geoff is forced into sports despite the fact he’s had decades upon decades to decide that physical activity just isn’t for him.  Then he’s thirteen and kissing a girl for another 'first kiss' to file away in his memories.  Then it’s seventeen and Geoff is losing this body’s virginity at some teenage party, because somethings never do change.  He doesn’t feel guilty sleeping with the few guys and girls that come between that and his eighteenth birthday because although he knows his boys are out there, Geoff learned long ago that in an endless cycle of lives, physical intimacy doesn’t equate to love.  Linking the two were just illogical when most of your mates wouldn’t remember you from one life to the next.  Plus, he can’t really get to any of his crew before he’s of legal age to access his accounts.

After the crash of 29 and the subsequent restructuring of the banking system in America, long-term accounts had become all the rage as they promised to hold assets across lives for people.  Geoff had quickly jumped onto this opportunity, despite Jack’s warnings.  One of the lives Jack remembers most is the one in which he worked as a business man in Philadelphia and all the panic and tragedy that surrounded Black Tuesday.  Even the broker tried to talk Geoff out of it, citing that most people never retained their assets due to lack of memory after their first reincarnation.

Geoff had just laughed and told both of them that putting his money somewhere where it would earn for itself while he was mucking about as a youth would be better than burying it somewhere for him to return later on.  Geoff had buried his wealth for years, often being forced to leave some of it behind because he couldn’t did _that_ big of a hole or he accidentally left behind his valuables in his home due to a sudden demise.

And once he buried his things, there was no guarantee he would be able to retrieve them either as he’d found through his many lives.  Once a military base had been built on top of his land in Norfolk, Virginia and another life had some lucky vagabond dig it up when he was trying to bury a body.  Or so the newspaper claimed, Geoff recounted with a frown to the pair of men.  And with that he opened his account and it had worked for him ever since.  He’s now on the later end of seventeen for the third time since opening that account and Geoff is counting down the days until the bank will acknowledge him as the rightful owner.

The day he turns eighteen Geoff spends his last day with his mother and father, assuring them of his intentions and going over the backup plan of how he is going to get back to Alabama if he cannot access his funds or if there aren’t as much in these accounts as he remembers.  For all they know, Geoff is going off to find his long lost wife from his previous life, because as much as times have changed he still can’t admit his sexual preferences in the rural south let alone the fact that he had a polyamorous gay relationship.

Still, Geoff humors their worries with a smile and empty promises that he will be back to see them soon.  It isn’t that Geoff doesn’t want to ever see his parents again, it’s more that he isn’t sure how long or far this search will take him.  His meager savings from working at the local corner mart is enough to get him a coach seat on the bus from Montgomery to Los Angeles, where his physical security box is located.  It’s a long ride filled with strangers that smell like piss and too many cricks in Geoff’s neck to ever get a good night’s sleep but after forty seven hours in that hellish steel cage, Geoff makes it to the west coast. 

L.A. is a bit worse for wear than the last time he has been there; the ruddier areas are all out gang warzones but the wealthy pockets seem to have been built bigger and more brazen despite the drought problems and rising heat.  Even though the storefronts have changed and sleeker cars clog up the streets, Geoff feels almost at home making his way from the Amtrak station to the Old Bank District.

Among the now-aging lofts stands one discreet entrance nestled into one of the Greek revivalist buildings, leading into a columned room that still awes Geoff.  He’s done this before but it still irks him how much information he must provide to have access to his personal possessions but when they finally verify that he is actually the Geoffrey Ramsey who is listed on the account rather than the Dalton Sawyer his new life claims him to be, Geoff declines retrieving his physical security box.  He knows the memories it contains, all the trinkets he’s collected over time and stored away so he’ll always have them, and as much as he misses them from nearly two decades without them, Geoff knows it isn’t the time to reminisce.  Instead, he issues himself a new card and schedules the soonest meeting with a financial advisor to review his investments.

Unfortunately for Geoff, that means he has to wake up at ass-crack in the morning the next day despite finally getting to sleep in nicest bed he has ever slept in, in this life at least.  Seriously, he had missed down pillows and memory foam.  But Geoff pulls himself out of bed and into a store-bought suit he picked up the day before to go over a financial plan that fits this half of the twenty first century.

Geoff barely listens to the guy giving him advice, only tuning in when he talks about his real estate ventures that Geoff hadn’t realized stayed in his name seeing as he had been Los Santos’s number one crime lord in his past life.  Geoff could have kissed his account manager when he confirms that Geoff’s penthouse as well as many of his ‘industrial complexes’ are still in his legal ownership.  Geoff doesn’t care about his warning that these areas are not under the bank’s protection during reincarnation interims and that while Geoff might legally still own these properties, they might not be intact.  Geoff doesn’t care about that at all because all he is thinking of is that when he finds his boys, he can go _home._

Geoff also has ownership of many commercial ventures, some which haven’t held up with time, and others that have thrived.  Geoff really doesn’t care which way once he sees his current net worth.  Having dozens of lives to financially plan for the future has led to Geoff amassing enough wealth that turning to crime in his past life had been more of a hobby than a necessity and now that he knows that his adventure to find his boys isn’t going to bankrupt him, Geoff is renewed with a sense of purpose.

It’s easy to rent an apartment in one of the shadier districts of Los Angeles when he hands over a wad of cash paying for the next six months upfront.  All he wants is a quiet spot with good WiFi so that he can start searching for his crew.  It isn’t like he hasn’t looked them up before, but their old names only get Geoff so far.  Nothing new has been heard on a “Jack Pattillo” or “Ray Narvaez Jr.” in twenty years.  There are hundreds of Ryan Haywoods for Geoff to sort through and even more for “James Haywood.”  Geoff can’t even start with Michael Jones, that fucking prick with a common name.  And Gavin…

Geoff really wishes he had paid more attention to whatever nonsense Gavin did on the computer to find people when he was their hacker.  It would really help Geoff now, especially since he had done such a good job at wiping his entire being off of the internet, or so it seems.

But there are other ways to do this, Geoff reasons.  Image searches.  Old school visits to where they came from.  Tracking down things that interested his boys in their past lives and seeing if they pop up on any radars of these things nowadays.  There are internet guides on how to find people from past lives and people who Geoff can hire if he gets really desperate.  Reincarnation isn’t something new, and Geoff knows that better than anyone.  He isn’t worried, he’ll find them soon.

Except image searching doesn’t work.  The only pictures Geoff has to use of his boys are from their crew days taken off of old websites because he is not setting a foot into Los Santos without his boys.  He won’t go back to their shared apartment to get old albums even if it means this taking a little longer he can’t, _he can’t-_

Geoff doesn’t let himself think of these things.  He tries again and again with each new picture of each of his boys, even Jack although all they have are grainy snapshots of him in his thirties with a full beard and pot belly.  Geoff knows that Jack wouldn’t have either of those now but still, he has to hope.

It’s weeks of searching images and tracking down leads of “visually similar results” that are all just people with too curly red hair or practically anyone of Hispanic descent because Geoff swears that the algorithms these engines use are racist as dicks.

But it’s okay, Geoff reasons to himself.  He’s been in California for a little over two months now and that’s pretty much just a nap for him at this point.  The rest of them will probably all be hitting eighteen soon as well.  Reincarnation isn’t guaranteed to happen right after death but for most it happens within a few months or so.  Over a year is pretty rare and any more than that is severely improbable.  So by basic math, with Geoff being reincarnated a mere two days after his death, it is safe to assume that at least two of his boys will be eighteen before the year is out and come looking for him.

Geoff isn’t letting the niggling fear that they won’t remember him or their past together bother him.  Gavin and Michael used to swear up and down that they remembered most of their past life with Geoff; Michael even remembered some of the inside jokes from back then that Geoff would throw out every once in a while.  Jack has been with him for more than the others and while the first couple of cycles had Jack unsure of who Geoff exactly was to him in the past, Jack had sought him out the most recent times because he knew he had to, for some reason, even if he couldn't remember why.

Ryan and Ray are the ones Geoff isn’t too sure of in terms of how well they will remember their time in Los Santos.  Geoff knows Ryan is more like him than any of the others, although by Ryan’s admission, he doesn’t remember each life he lives and even when he does, it isn’t always the most important things that stay with him.  But Geoff has hope.  Ryan hadn’t remembered the life he led before their last one together so maybe, _probably_ that meant that Ryan would remember this one.  But Ray…

Ray rarely talked about his past lives and now Geoff is regretting not finding out why.  Did he not remember anything at all?  Or did he remember everything too much?  Were the things he remembered only traumatic bits?  Geoff has heard of that and he pities those who have only the bad of which to remember from their many lives.  But Geoff isn’t sure if that’s what Ray’s case is because he never asked and now…

Now…

Now Geoff is flying out to New York City.  It’s close enough to both Ray’s and Michael’s previous hometowns.  In the two lives Geoff has shared with Michael, he was from the New York tristate area both takes and he’s hoping for a hat trick on Michael’s part.  Maybe he’s like Geoff and reincarnates within a certain radius each time.  And all Geoff knows about Ray was that he was living in East Harlem running easy tricks before Michael scooped him up and introduced him to Geoff and their lifestyle.

Geoff will try for two birds with one stone and if Manhattan just happens to be the farthest place from Los Santos that Geoff could get without a passport then he’ll take that as a blessing too.

Geoff hasn’t been in New York City in nearly a century and he’s forgotten just how big such a small island can be.  He combines his ideas and starts asking around about gaming tournaments and frequenting Game Stops from the Financial District to Inwood.

It takes him a while to make his way through the entire staff of all these places.  There may only be eleven Game Stops in Manhattan, but the staff in each store seems to be excessive and it takes Geoff a week to understand the shift changes of the three stores downtown. 

Monday through Sunday he stops into each of these stores three times a day in order to see the opener, mid-shift, and closing employees.  He goes to local competitions in coffee shops and memorabilia stores, watching as young kids play their way through games that are so massive and intricate that Geoff can’t imagine ever being on their level.  One day Geoff sees someone in a Halo shirt and comments on the series but the kid just gives him a look and tells him he picked the shift up at a thrift shop because it was vintage and has no idea what Geoff is going on about.  Geoff doesn’t talk much to any of the teens after that.

After a two weeks of monitoring those stores and getting a working schedule of the more popular gaming competitions downtown, Geoff moves to the three Game Stops in midtown and does the same thing.  Then Uptown and finally the shop in Harlem.  At this point he can barely keep up with all the gaming competitions he’s supposed to attend to watch for Ray or Michael because it seems that in SoHo alone there are five to six different tournaments a night- and that’s only one of nearly fifty neighborhoods on the damn island!

Three months in and Geoff hasn’t heard anything about anyone that sounds like Michael or Ray in the gaming circuit and Geoff isn’t sure what else to do to try and track them down.  He’s living in what’s practically a closet and hasn’t properly spoken to anyone since that kid with the Halo shirt and it’s getting a little lonely.  Geoff is almost starting to miss Alabama because at least he had friends there and life didn’t seem so hopeless.

Geoff gives himself one night to fall apart.  One night.  He calls his parents and breaks down to them about not being able to find who he's looking for and they try to comfort him.  Geoff’s mother tells him that she had a love from a previous life who she thought she would find and fall back in love with but then she met Geoff’s father and the rest was history.  Geoff just feels worse at this.  His parents were actually in love- it was something he respected his whole life out of this pair that he was born into.  To think that his mother had once been wildly head over heels for another man _that she could remember_ but then to fall so deeply for his father opens the door to a world of possibilities that Geoff hasn’t considered.

Sure, Geoff knows it is a possibility his boys don’t remember him, but he always thought that once he finds them they could work that part out.  It has happened to him before- once with Jack even!  But never did Geoff think that one of them could remember their crew and decide _fuck it_ and be with someone else.

It takes three times the amount of the bottle of Glenfiddich for the liquor store owner to ignore the fact that Geoff is only eighteen but when Geoff cracks open that triangular bottle of scotch, he knows it’s worth it.  This, he thinks, is the worst part of being underage in the modern world.  Crooked shop keeps will always be around but it is taking more and more for them to risk the severe underage penalties and that means that all Geoff has had to drink in this body is shitty beer and some watered down liquor from his friend’s parent’s stash. 

The scotch burns his untainted throat and it only takes a single glass for Geoff to start feeling the effects.  That night he lies down without the doubts about finding his boys and only thinks of how nice it is to have a virgin liver. In the wake of the alcohol, Geoff falls asleep and dreams of nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of build this chapter. I've got the next one finished (just need to edit) and it will be up Wednesday (:


	3. Chapter 3

Geoff heads back to Los Angeles two days later, slightly disappointed but still determined.  It isn’t until his flight touches down in LAX that Geoff feels like he’s left Michael behind all over again.

It’s one of the few things that have haunted him over the years.  Even as a young boy he’d wake up crying with dreams of all the different ways Michael had died trying to help them.  Each scenario left Michael distressed and alone while the rest of the crew at least had each other in those final moments.  Geoff had always been so fiercely against leaving any of his own behind, even momentarily, and the fact that the first time he’d had to make that call was with Michael…

Geoff makes it through more of the scotch that night before vomiting all over the concrete floor of the shitty apartment he’s still renting.  Geoff wakes up the next day and starts swigging from the bottle before even brushing the bile from his teeth.  He figures he can’t come up with newer, more gruesome ways for Michael to meet his end if he can’t think at all.

The bottle lasts him one more day and Geoff is impressed at how much of a lightweight he is in this body.  Alcohol is always something he comes back to quickly and the honeymoon phase of being able to find solace before he meets the bottom of the bottle ends pretty quickly.  He knows he’ll have to begin stocking up soon, but that thought is pushed to the wayside as Geoff drowns his regrets once more.

On the fourth day of being back in California, Geoff has a raging hang over and a pile of broken glass to deal with.  He isn’t sure what happened, but if he’d have to guess, Geoff would say that his drunk self wasn’t impressed when he finished the Glenfiddich.

It’s another two bottles and some odd days before Geoff has had enough of trying to run from his failures and remembers that his boys are counting on him.  Sure, they might not know that Geoff has been on a bender for the past week?  Two weeks?  But that doesn’t change that somewhere all Geoff’s lads and the rest of Team Gents are waiting for him to pull himself together, put on his boss persona, and reunite them.  Even if they don’t know that’s what they’re waiting for, it's his responsibility to find them, Geoff reasons.

The shaky self-motivation is enough, it seems, to get Geoff out of bed and into a shower without the aid of some amber liquid.  He isn’t quite sure where to go from there, but Geoff knows that anywhere other than his apartment would be more productive.

There used to be a kitschy little coffee shop down on East 8th and Santee Street that he’d drag the crew to whenever they were in Los Angeles.  That particular shop seems to have closed down a long time ago, but Geoff finds the hole in the wall that has replaced it to be suitable enough.  Which means that while it doesn’t have wrought iron accents and tongue-in-cheek brew names that drew him and Ryan in for hours to people watch, it does have only a slightly watery dark roast and free WiFi.  Geoff doesn’t even want to contemplate on how far his standards have fallen.

Geoff searches the names of his crew once again.  Then he moves onto code names.  While ‘Mogar’ and ‘Vagabond’ are rather neutral in their unhelpful results, Geoff gets an eyeful of things he did not want to see with ‘BrownMan’ and ‘Mark Nutt’.  He’s pretty sure he’s blushing at this point and he hopes no one was walking behind him and glimpsed his screen on either of those searches.

It’s late when Geoff gives up on trying to find any trace of his boys on the internet.  He’s the last patron in the shop and the barista is giving him pointed looks from where she is polishing the espresso machine.  Geoff doesn’t want to go back to his apartment but he ignores the flashing neon signs of various bars as he dejectedly heads home.

Geoff has two options, he reasons as he lies in his bed.  The first option is to hire a professional.  There are billboard ads all over Los Angeles and dozens more spawn in the banners on every website he scours; between all of those agencies Geoff is sure he’ll find someone who can track down the rest of his crew.

But that also leaves him with the problem of finding someone he can trust enough with the information of who Geoff was in the past.  Or at least someone he can pay enough not to go running off with that information.  Geoff hasn’t kept up with reincarnation laws but he’s heard of people being charged on things from their past lives before.  Really a shitty deal, in Geoff’s opinion.

And that leaves option number two- go back to Los Santos.  Geoff’s stomach turns as he considers it, scared to see the ghosts hidden within the ruins of his empire. Geoff knows that time will have repainted what could be salvaged and rebuilt what was too far gone, but he can’t help but be afraid that a dark red stain might be hiding in one of the back alleys that is too much Ryan or Michael or Gavin for Geoff to handle.  He’s sure that the pigs who finally gunned them down must have been proud back then, so what if Geoff walks past something from that final show down that has been preserved like a goddamn trophy?

Geoff knows he’s being irrational but he can’t help how tight his fists are or the way his nails are digging into his own palms.  The hammering of his heart in his chest is so loud with rage and hurt for his boys that Geoff would swear his neighbors could hear its thumping through their thin walls.  Geoff wills himself to calm down, taking long breaths to soothe his nerves, and soon his tension dissolves.

Its well after dark at this point, but Geoff knows what he has to do.  Letting someone else into his past and the lives of the men he loves is a dangerous game that puts them all in jeopardy, and Geoff isn’t desperate enough to do that.  Or at least not yet, a small voice in the back of his mind adds on every time he thinks of it.  Geoff just ignores that voice as well as the others that balking at what he is about to do.  It’s now or never and Geoff can’t help but bolster himself with a little liquid courage.

Veins warm with alcohol and head swirling with thoughts on what he might find, Geoff calls a cab and gives him directions to a street corner that had haunted his dreams for the past eighteen years.  It’s surreal to watch the streets of L.A. change into those of Los Santos as if nothing has changed.  Much like with the coffee shop from earlier, Geoff finds that most of the alterations made in his absence are aesthetic rather than structural.  Geoff let’s himself daydream about running those streets again- Michael and Ryan at his back, Gavin squawking over their comm, Jack waiting nearby with the van, and Ray overhead like some guardian angel shit.  All of them young and spry, coming home as the once and future kings of this SoCal wasteland. 

His thoughts are cut short by the driver slamming on the breaks and demanding his money.  With a scowl, Geoff hands over the change and lets himself into the night’s chill air.  The cab pulls away almost as soon as Geoff’s feet hit the pavement, driver desperate to get away from the inner streets of the dangerous city.  Geoff watches him go and feels as if he left his stomach in the backseat, nerves for what he is doing coming back in full force.

Geoff gives himself a shake before steeling his nerves and approaching the looming building.  It’s just one of their old safe houses that they used infrequently enough that Geoff doesn’t feel like he’s walking into a graveyard of their past relationship, but they still occupied it enough so that Geoff was certain that there were things that could help his search inside.

Or at least he hopes that’s the case with how run down the inside of the building seems nowadays.  Geoff frowns at the disinterested lobby worker when she doesn’t even look up as he enters.  The elevator has an out of order sign that’s yellowed, giving the impression that either it goes out frequently enough they reuse the sign or that the elevator hasn’t seen movement in ages.  Geoff grumbles to himself about having to look into new real estate as he heads up fourteen flights of stairs to the old apartment.

The decaying nature of the building makes it different enough for Geoff’s nerves to have subsided by the time he reaches the suite on the top floor.  Being winded and achy from the unexpected climb also helps.  The door to the apartment has been changed from the metal monstrosity Geoff had installed to a simple double-lock model.  It’s easy enough for Geoff to swipe a card through the first lock and while the second one takes time, Geoff is confident that he hadn’t lost that much of his abilities in his reincarnation.

Once inside, Geoff feels like he’s walking into a fever dream.  They architectural layout is the same, but that seems to be the only withstanding feature.  Everything is painted and decorated in bright hues and eclectic knickknacks that are decidedly _not Geoff’s._

Geoff feels like he should panic at the thought of all his things being gone.  Panic over his chance at finding things that might give him a lead slipping through his fingers.  Panic for a life time washed away in someone else’s wake.  But he doesn’t.  All he feels is anger.  He had checked and double checked that this apartment was one of the ones he still had ownership for and either his account manager was lying of Geoff had some serious trespassing problems. 

Driven on by his rage, Geoff sneaks further into the house, taking in all the things that replaced his well curated collection of artifacts and art pieces.  In an uncharacteristic fit, Geoff goes to smash a particularly offensive vase but he hesitates when he hears the distinct sound of a safety click.

"Okay, fucker, move an inch and your brains become my new wall decal."

Geoff freezes.

Not because he was commanded to but because of that voice. That voice!  Even though it's a bit deeper than Geoff remembers, it causes his heart to drop to his stomach. There is a gun pushing against the back of his head and the man holding it is asking who Geoff is and what he wants but all Geoff cares about is that voice.

"Michael?" Geoff chokes out, voice squeaky with hope. The man pauses in his cursing and for a brief moment, both men are silent with realization. Then the gun is gone and a strong hand grabs Geoff's shoulder, spinning him around.

"Geoff?" Michael questions, eyes wide as if he's taking in a ghost.

But it's all wrong.

There are wrinkles that frame Michael's slack jaw and crow’s-feet that make his wide eyes look like a parody of the man Geoff knew. Geoff steps back, taking in the details that don't make sense. Greying temples and a bit of extra weight on Michael's typically lithe form. Hell, he's even wearing a pair of jeans that Geoff would swear he stole from Ryan's closet they're so dad-like.

"Geoff," Michael repeats, reaching out for him but Geoff just backs away further. A brief flash if hurt crosses Michael's face but Geoff can't even find it in him to be guilty because it's all wrong wrong _wrong_.

"Michael, is everything okay?" Geoff turns towards the other familiar voice coming from what used to be the guest bedroom.  Although showing similar symptoms of age, Geoff can tell immediately that it's Lindsay. Geoff looks between the aged forms of his two former crew members and all he can think is _oh_.

Michael looks properly guilty as he steps in front of Geoff's view of Lindsay, forcing Geoff's attention back to the bastardized version of the face he had loved. Still loves.  Nothing is computing anymore for Geoff and all he knows is he needs to get out of that apartment.

Michael must read Geoff's intentions and he reaches out to stop him with one last cry for Geoff to wait.

"Geoff?" Lindsay's surprised exclamation comes from further in the apartment but Geoff is running, tearing through the front door and ignoring Michael's swears and calls for him to come back. Geoff runs and runs until he is down the fourteen floora, out the building and doesn’t stop until he is practically at the border of Los Santos. His heart is pounding and he can't catch his breath but Geoff isn't sure if those are symptoms of exertion of from seeing Michael.

A grown Michael. Aged and tarnished over the years. Not the bright eyed boy that Geoff had met twice before. In fact, Geoff realizes, this is the first time he's ever seen an elder Michael.  The closest he'd gotten was thirty four before Geoff had lost his life that first time.  An aged Geoff was something they were all used to and even an older Jack wasn't strange to Geoff anymore. But his lads...

Geoff hails a cab and tries to stave off the feeling on abandoning Michael again by making awkward small talk with the cabby. The man keeps shooting Geoff suspicious looks from the rear-view and eventually Geoff stops. Even without his empire to terrorize the streets it seems as if Los Santos citizens are still wary.

Geoff makes it back to his apartment and falls into bed.  The terrible shock seems to have traumatized his already frazzled system and Geoff is out within minutes.  His dreams aren’t his typical abstract, illogical narratives but instead he’s immersed in memories.  They fade into each other and Geoff’s lives don’t seem linear at all by the time he wakes up to a loud pounding interrupting his sleep.

Geoff isn’t quite sure initially where or when he is and it takes a second round of loud knocking to right his mind.  As soon as he places himself, Geoff’s panic rises at the prospect of who could be at the other side of his door.  Geoff knows who is _must_ be but his mind tries to rationalize away how Michael has no idea where he lives and that the other man could not have possibly found him overnight.

So when Geoff slides out of bed and peers through the peephole to confirm his suspicions, he’s surprised when his stomach doesn’t drop in anxiety but instead he’s filled with a morbid curiosity.  He isn’t sure he wants to open the door but if he does, Geoff is going to demand to know just how Michael found him in under ten hours while Geoff had spent months searching for the others before accidentally crossing paths with Michael.

“Geoff, I know you’re in there, open up,” Michael calls, voice muffled through the heavy door.  Geoff closes his eyes and leans his forehead against the wooden panel separating him from his objective of the past few months.  Muffled, Michael sounds almost the same as he did the last time Geoff heard him.  Geoff can imagine the snarled ‘fuck’ Michael growled through the comm before detonating the bridge and their line going dead.  Geoff can imagine his cackle of a laugh and his whispered ‘I love you’ in the night.  What Geoff can’t imagine is the sound of Michael’s voice from the previous night and he wants more than anything for it to stay that way because seeing Michael grown is just too unfair.  Unfair to which of them, Geoff isn’t sure.

Guilt creeps into Geoff’s stomach and the unbidden thoughts of just what Michael must have gone through, alone, to become the man he is today, filter into Geoff’s mind.  Geoff wonders if Michael resents him for making the decision to leave him behind as much as he regrets calling it.  So when Michael says ‘please’, Geoff knows his heart can’t take turning the man away and leaving him behind again and so he lifts his head off of the door, pushes away his damning thoughts, and swings the door open so forcefully it slams into the wall with a sickening crunch.

Michael seems taken aback by Geoff suddenly appearing where the door just was, hand half raised to knock again and mouth agape in a half formed word.  Geoff swallows hard as Michael’s eyes trail up and down his form, taking in the youthful body Geoff currently possesses.

The pair just stare at each other for a minute after that in a moment of awkwardness that is so uncharacteristic of the two most bombastic former members of Fake AH Crew.  Finally Geoff clears his throat and Michael’s eyes shoot up to catch Geoff’s own.

“How did you find me?” The question flies from Geoff’s lips without a thought.  Really, of all the things he could ask Michael, this is the only answer Geoff is prepared to hear.  Michael just shrugs, pushing his hands into his pockets in a familiar gesture.  Geoff can overlook the way Michael’s shirt catches a bit on his gut and how loose cut the jeans are and it’s almost like watching a memory of Michael try to deflect why a rival gang’s supply house mysteriously blew up.

“I tracked your cab,” Michael admits.  “I, uh, own the company and it was pretty easy to figure out where you went once I looked.”

“You own the company?” Geoff repeats, face scrunching in confusion.

“Had to do something when you guys all left,” Michael says with another shrug.  Geoff’s guilt rages on with a new found fury but Michael’s face doesn’t hold any accusation.

“Oh,” Geoff says softly, trying to find anything to focus on in the dingy hallway behind Michael.  Despite the door being wide open, Geoff’s still blocking the entrance to his apartment.  He isn’t sure he wants Michael in there.  Besides, it’s not much more than a kitchen and a bedroom and the lack of luxuries almost make Geoff embarrassed for the man Michael expects to meet.  Maybe he isn’t the only one who will be disappointed by the man that they find in place of their ex-lover.

“Can we talk?” Michael asks, glancing around the hallway to try and see what Geoff finds so interesting.

“Sure,” Geoff says with false enthusiasm.

“Uh, not in the hallway?” Michael presses, glancing behind Geoff expectantly.  Pretending not to catch on, Geoff just nods before holding up a finger and backing up to grab his keys from their hook.  Michael is peering into the unlit apartment curiously as Geoff comes back to the doorway and he is quick to shut the door behind him to cut off Michael's view.

The action, while successful in its original objective, turns out to be a mistake as Michael doesn’t back up in time and Geoff seems to have exited the apartment directly into Michael’s personal space.  Geoff gives out an almost Gavin-like squeak before sidestepping away, mumbling for Michael to follow him. 

Geoff keeps the pace fast so that Michael is trailing far behind him by the time he reaches the elevator, giving him a precious few seconds to collect himself and school away his blush.  When Michael comes to stop next to him to wait for the elevator, he doesn’t seem bothered by their brief proximity.  In fact, he seems to know Geoff’s previous predicament and offers him a look halfway between sympathetic and regretful.  Geoff just ignores him, pushing the down button harshly another two times before the doors finally open.

“So where are we going?” Michael asks when they make it to the bottom floor.  Whereas Geoff is avoiding looking at Michael, the latter seems to have eyes only for his former boss.  Geoff finds it quite unnerving, taking a quick left out of his apartment building in relatiation, grumbling something that Michael doesn’t quite hear.  The antics are very Geoff-like, in Michael’s opinion, although it does suit him more in his teenage form rather than his forty year old mob boss boyfriend.  Geoff hears Michael snicker behind him and it just causes him to scowl and pick up his pace.

Michael keeps up, offering mild comments about certain shops that they pass and lamenting the shuttering of other businesses to an unresponsive Geoff.  Geoff just keeps on going until Michael seems to be in an unfamiliar area of town.  Geoff similarly holds no memories of it, making it the perfect place for the pair to talk.  At least Geoff won’t be distracted by any memories of better times and Michael won’t be able to inadvertently laud over Geoff that he’s spent the past two decades here without him.

Geoff sidles into the first bar without hesitation followed by Michael, who is once again chuckling to himself.  Geoff eyes the sparse crowd, although it might be considered fairly busy to anyone else for eleven in the morning on a weekday, before sliding into a booth in the back.  Michael doesn’t follow immediately, going up to the bar and ordering them both drinks.  Geoff sees the bartender eye him for a moment and he stares back defiantly, but the old man eventually just rolls his eyes and pours Michael his order.

Michael returns to pass Geoff a beer, to which Geoff just raises a brow.  Michael shrugs, a lazy smile upon his face.  

“Figured it might be a bit early to start on the hard stuff,” Michael explains.

“Never stopped me before,” Geoff quips.  “And I never heard you complaining when we did!”

“True, but you were also a fucking adult and we could order this legally.  Now, you’re reliant on me for your booze,” Michael says excitedly, smirk plastered across his face.

“Oh the horror,” Geoff mocks, rolling his eyes before taking a sip of his lager.

“Hey!  At least it’s not Ray!  Remember when we sent him to get wine and he came back with cooking sherry?”  Michael snickers.  Geoff nearly chokes on his beer at the hilarity of that memory.

“And you drank it!”

“Don’t pretend like you didn’t too, asshole!”

“Yeah, because it was at least alcohol and I was stuck with you six idiots in a single motel room.  And this was before we all got together, so just remember how uncomfortable it was to watch Gavin and Ryan flirt back then.”

“Yeah, it took them for-fucking-ever to talk to the rest of us about it.  Like we didn’t have eyes.”

“Oh my god, and Ryan was the one to do it too!  He pulled me aside and owned up to it with his head all hung like a god damn puppy awaiting his punishment.  Oh man, how we freaked Gavin out after that.  You didn’t even yell at him, you just sat there and watched him and he started to break down.”

“Dude, sometimes quiet freaks people out more than rage.  You just gotta know your audience,” Michael manages in between laughs.  “Although for as much shit as we gave them about it, I kinda almost hated it when we did give our blessing.  At least at first.”

Geoff quiets down at this, giving Michael a thoughtful look. 

“You didn’t tell us about that.” Michael shrugs, fingering one of the spare coasters on the table with his right hand.

“You guys seemed so into it.  Like Gav wasn’t our boyfriend or whatever and he could just fuck whomever he wants.  I mean, I got over it once I realized what you and Jack intended, but the first few weeks were a bit eh.”

“I’m sorry,” Geoff says softly, unconsciously reaching across the table to squeeze Michael’s fidgeting hand.  “We should have picked up on that back then.”  Michael is silent, watching Geoff’s hand on his own with a frown.  After a moment, he shifts just enough to shake Geoff’s hand off, and the awkwardness from earlier is back.

“You’re so different without your tattoos,” Michael finally says.  Geoff just shrugs, unsure of what to make of Michael’s statement.

“I mean, you’ve seen me without them before.”

“Yeah, but you always had a few.  And I guess last time was just so…”  Michael makes a vague motion with his hand to encompass what his words can’t seem to contain.  Geoff just nods in understanding.  Of all his lives, this last one with the six of them just seemed so much more vibrant?  Alive?  Important?  None of those words fit exactly, but they’re the closest Geoff can get to what he feels.

“When,” Michael starts, voice wobbly.  _Oh God_ , Geoff thinks as he knows what’s coming.  Michael clears his throat and takes a drink before continuing.  “When everything happened and you guys died in that heist, I really couldn’t imagine what I was going to do from there.  I couldn’t understand that somehow I was alive despite being blown half way across the fucking highway, but you guys were dead.

“All the news reports said that the police took out the entire Fake AH Crew, including me.  They even had a picture of my body,” Michael says with a bitter laugh.  Geoff just stares at the table now, letting Michael’s words sink in as he waits for him to continue.  After a deep breath, Michael does just that.

“I thought that maybe if they had faked my death, _maybe_ one of you guys made it as well.  But I couldn’t be the one to go out and ask people, shit I was barely alive at that point, holed up in one of our weapon storage units on that side of town.  I actually had an infection in a pretty fucking nasty road rash down my side and it wasn’t getting any better.  It was some divine fate shit that had Lindsay show up at the warehouse to pick up some supplies, B-Team was still trying to keep shit in order back then, and she found me.

“You’d think that she’d be nice when she finds me, who is supposedly dead and surprise- I’m miraculously alive!  But no, bitch slapped me so hard I thought that she was going to finish off the job.  Instead, she yelled at me for making her scared before treating my wounds.  She never even hesitated when I asked her to check up on you guys, even though she had to have known it was a lost cause.  But that’s Lindsay for ya.  I’m still thankful for that to this day.”

“Yeah, Lindsay was always a good kid,” Geoff comments, voice heavy and eyes a bit too glassy.  Michael pretends he doesn’t notice, offering a small smile and nod before drinking his beer.  It doesn’t seem like he’s going to continue, but now Geoff is curious.  There are nearly nineteen years between then and now and Geoff wants to know everything.  It’s a vast change of heart from this morning, but Geoff needs this.

“What happened after you realized we were all…?”

“Dead?” Michael deadpans with a chuckle.  “Yeah, that really went over well back then.  I remember cursing every pig this side of California and swearing to tear them up from Los Angeles to San Andreas, but Lindsay and Kdin stopped me.  To everyone I was dead and leaving a trail of explosives up the coast was a sure fire way to make people question that- both the cops and rival gangs as well.  At this point, it was obvious that Fake AH wasn’t going to survive this.  We lost too many and rivals sprung up out of the woodwork to feast on the falling empire.  It was get out then or die fighting, but the thing was, none of us had anything to fight _for._   You were our leader and Jack our second and without you guys, there wasn’t much keeping us all together,” Michael’s voice seems to beg for forgiveness and he’s studying Geoff’s face as if his life depends on it.  Geoff nearly frowns before catching himself, knowing that his reaction will be scrutinized.

“You guys did the right thing,” Geoff finally says, meaning each word.  While he hates to hear of his empire crashing and burning, he wouldn’t want any of his crew to die by the merciless hands of their enemies.  More than likely they’d be overtaken and tortured for information on locations of ordinances and valuables until they cracked or died.  Really, getting out was the option Geoff would have wanted them to pick back then.

“Yeah, well, a few of our buildings fell.  The safe house near the strip club, two warehouses on the lower east side, and mine and Ray’s old apartment.  I gave up two more of our safe houses for Kerry and Caleb, who both wanted to stay in this shithole but were in too deep to just lay low until they could work as mercs.  Kerry ended up going over to Rooster Teeth and Caleb worked freelance for them for a while too.  Burns always had our back,” Michael reports as if they were back in one of the offices of their headquarters.  Geoff tallies the losses out of habit, but won’t let himself be distracted.

“And you?” Geoff queries.  Michael fidgets, looking at a spot on the wall just over Geoff’s shoulder as not to make eye contact.

“Michael?” Geoff prompts again.

“Lindsay and I split one of our lesser used safe houses.  I didn’t want…couldn’t be around all of our stuff,” Michael practically whispers.  “We agreed it would be safer for us to stay together, plus it helped having her around to do things when I couldn’t go out because I was supposed to be dead.  I drank a lot, raged about how unfair things were and how the fuck could I get left behind.”  Geoff flinches at this, but Michael doesn’t stop.

“But Lindsay just stayed there through all of it.  She reminded me that it wasn’t a permanent situation, offered to shoot me a few times too so I could just reset with all of you.”  Geoff whistles at that.  For as good of a friend as Lindsay was back then, Geoff is impressed that she would offer to kill her only companion and put herself in jeopardy just for Michael's happiness.  Geoff’s been through the fall of gangs before, more often than not on the conquering side, and he knows that being a top ranking member by oneself is pretty much an invitation to be murdered.

“I didn’t take her up on it, obviously, but there have been so many times I wish I had.  After about a year of this she told me it was her last offer and I turned it down, but I regretted it so hard after.  My rage shifted from you guys leaving me to how much of a coward I was for not just letting Lindsay put a bullet between my eyes.  It was constant at first but then gradually less and less.

“The reason why I didn’t want to die was because I didn’t want to forget any of our lives together.  And I know you remember everything, Geoff, but the rest of us don’t.  And I mean I can remember our last life together, but that’s no guarantee I’ll remember us being kings of Los Santos.  Of finding Ray and Ryan.  I could even forget what happened last time too, and that scares me.”

“I know,” Geoff says softly, reaching out towards Michael again.  This time, Michael doesn’t pull his hand away.  He seems to be in his own head at this point, intent on telling his story.

“I knew you guys would be reborn and grow up all over again and I swore I’d find all of you.  I truly intended on doing that and trying to figure out how to make things work even though I’m almost fifty and you guys are barely adults.  But then…Lindsay…”  Michael opens and closes his mouth a few times, as if the words are stuck in his throat.  Michael’s face twists in some unseen anguish, pulling his hand out of Geoff's, and Geoff is on edge again.  Michael seems to get the courage to say whatever it is that he was going to say, eyes hard and determined as they bore into Geoff as he slams his left hand onto the table.

“We’re married, Geoff.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nearly doubled to word count on this one and I feel like I have so much more to say. I have a bit of the next chapter written and it'll probably be even longer than this one. I'd say sorry for theending, but if I start saying sorry now it'll get pretty repetitive by the end of this \:


End file.
